Rather than a put-up battle between ranchers and sheepherders or farmers, this Durango Kid outing features a fomented conflict between ranchers and miners. When Steve Downey (Charles Starrett) seeks to reopen the mine that was owned by his murdered brother-in-law, the crooks behind the killing commit another, with Steve framed for the crime, and it’s …
Read the full post →“<em>South of Death Valley</em> (Columbia, 1949)”
A cowboy prone to a little misbehavior masquerades as a parson but faces difficulties when a criminal recognizes him, and things get even more complicated when the real parson shows up. As is common in Hoot Gibson’s films, there’s a large element of comedy in the proceedings, as the viewer watches the cowboy squirm in …
Unusual casting — Douglass Dumbrille as the lead and Sidney Toler as his sidekick — and polished performances by these actors, with effective contributions from the rest of the cast, including Russell Hayden, elevate this western tale of an old outlaw, who was driven to a life of crime when framed for murder, returning to …
Read the full post →“<em>The Mysterious Rider</em> (Paramount, 1938)”
A wandering cowpoke (Jimmy Wakely) who rescues an orphaned calf finds himself arrested and eventually sent on a work detail to a ranch whose owner (Kay Morley) has been facing difficulties from rustlers, sufficient to make it likely that she will lose her ranch in foreclosure. Jimmy and his fellow prisoners (including Lee “Lasses” White) …
Read the full post →“Monogram Monday: Six-Gun Serenade (1947)”
Amusing but uneven, this western comedy, originally titled ¡Viva la muerte… tua!, features Peter Nero and Eli Wallach as the roguish Prince Dmitri Vassilovich Orlowsky and the petty bandit Max Lozoya, respectively, who team up to go after a hidden fortune but along the way get involved with a revolution-pushing Irish reporter (Lynn Redgrave), a …
Read the full post →“<em>Long Live … Your Death! </em> (1971)”
Billy Donovan (Johnny Mack Brown) adopts the guise of an ammunition salesman as he seeks the man responsible for the deaths of his sister and brother-in-law. He comes to the aid of ranch owner Jean Halloran (Sheila Bromley), who is being threatened by the mysterious “Phantom” in an effort to force her off her land. …
Billy the Kid (Bob Steele) and sidekick Fuzzy (Al St. John) tackle the problem of a counterfeit “Kid” while dodging an old friend, a lawman set to arrest Billy for crimes he has not committed. Steele is his usual appealing self, and Fuzzy brings the humor one expects, though the low budget for this PRC …
Read the full post →“<em>Billy the Kid’s Range War</em> (PRC, 1941)”
Jimmy Wakely and sidekick Lee “Lasses” White intervene when a rangeland dispute prompts an old friend to block a public right of way, even as crooks working for both sides of the quarrel hope to foment a range war and take advantage of the fighting. A rather unexpected complexity to the situation makes for an …
Read the full post →“Monogram Monday: <em>Rainbow over the Rockies</em> (1947)”
Singing cowboy Jimmy Wakely and his pal Lasses (Lee “Lasses” White) tangle with a clever crook, a big rancher who has tied up all the railroad cars needed by the smaller ranchers to ship their cattle, with an eye toward gaining control of the railroad and forcing his smaller competitors out of business, too. A …
Read the full post →“Monogram Monday: <em>Moon over Montana</em> (1946)”
U.S. Marshals Nevada Jack McKenzie (Johnny Mack Brown) and Sandy Hopkins (Raymond Hatton) go undercover to investigate recent murders around the town of Springfield, including the killing of a rancher named Hilton, whose daughter happens to be traveling to town aboard a stage the bad guys try to rob, a robbery that Nevada Jack foils. …
Read the full post →“Monogram Monday: <em>Partners of the Trail</em> (1944)”
